Like Rats in a Trap
by Berlioz II
Summary: Two girls. Rivals. Colleagues. A small enclosed space. Trapped. No escape. Cue for classic comedy mayhem, courtesy of your kindly Fuuka Student Council and Suzushiro Executive Committee reps.
1. Part 1

_Okay, this is something I started writing quite some time ago, but which has only now really started swinging forward. This story was originally devised as a oneshot, but as of writing this now I feel it is simply going to be way too long for a oneshot. Thusly I am splitting this up into parts that will most likely top out at three or four chapters in total (depending on how long the individual scenes within are going to dictate). Scenario wise, this is set before the Carnival proper began in Mai-HiME, and is meant to be pretty much a classic comedy situation of two opposites being stuck in a small space together they can't escape from - these two of course being Shizuru and Haruka. I'm trying to keep them as much in character as possible, but feel free to correct me on any particular. I handle critique well. ;)_

_Here's just hoping my inspiration won't falter in the middle of this…_

_Mai-HiME © Sunrise, 2005  
Original Story © Berlioz II, 2010_

_

* * *

5:35 pm._

"Ahh…" Shizuru voiced her satisfaction as she sat behind the desk of the quiet and otherwise empty Student Council office sipping her tea, an activity she was quite fond of indulging in on a regular basis whenever she just had the chance… which admittedly was pretty much every time she sat behind the council desk.

Just the pure sense of refined, unadulterated bliss in a cup was enough for Shizuru to feel like every worry she could have - be it school related or a more personal issue - just melt away… washed away by the small slice of heaven she held in the small container between her hands.

And the drink never tasted better than during moments such as this. School was out for the day, with Shizuru having just finished doing whatever remaining council matters she had to attend to for the day, so there was nothing else to do but to just sit back and enjoy the tea in the mesmerizing orange of the coming sunset, before she'd also head back to her own lavishly well-equipped dorm suite, an envy of many other students not privy to the perks of Shizuru's presidency. No work. Nobody bustling about with one concern or another. No paperwork to review. No nothing. Not anymore. Just the empty room, a cup of tea, and utter peace in which to unwind in perfect tranquillity.

The only little thing that somewhat stuck out in the scene of serenity was a rather heavy looking box of… something, that sat on one of the vacant desks in the office. It had apparently been brought there by one of the school's clubs… Shizuru didn't really know which as the materialization of the box in the Student Council office was not due to any order she had given. It was most likely the work of the ever-busy Executive Director Suzushiro Haruka out to hunt another head to pester with one or another "breach of rules and ornaments".

Didn't really bother Shizuru. It wasn't her problem, and there was no particular need for her to even get involved with Suzushiro-san's usual antics if she could just avoid it. The box - whatever it was - would in all likelihood disappear in due time even without the President's active input.

Nope, the most pressing matter for Fujino Shizuru right now was her tea, and nothing but her tea, as she gracefully tipped the thermos beside her on the desk for another refill.

But as if her moment of inner tranquillity and harmony was just too good to be true Shizuru, to her slight consternation, soon found her beautiful moment shattered to pieces in one fell swoop as her sharp ears picked up the sounds of heavy stomping feet approaching the council room from the hallway.

"Ara…" she muttered just moments before the council door slammed open as the imposing presence of none other than Suzushiro Haruka marched in, looking every bit as pissed off as she usually did.

"Bubuzuke!" she barked immediately in an aggravated tone.

Shizuru slowly opened her eyes, and with a slight turn of her head, gave an inquisitive look at the infuriated blonde.

"Do you have any idea what's going on outside?" Haruka raged.

Shizuru put on a somewhat puzzled expression at the sudden question, and turned her head to look out the window. Of course she couldn't really see anything else but tree branches from her position, but she supposed the gesture would be enough to tell Haruka that she really didn't know.

"I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Suzushiro-san," Shizuru said with a smile as she turned back to the bullheaded girl.

"Figures! You're supposed to be the Student Council President, but your lax handling of school issues are appalling! Hand it to you to be completely unaware of what's actually happening in this school. It's just that kind of an attitude that has gotten us into this situation to begin with!"

"Ara… I am afraid I am somewhat confused, Suzushiro-san. What situation are you referring to?" Shizuru patiently said.

"The open fornication on school grounds, that's what!" Haruka shouted in a way that Shizuru was half-certain that her voice carried all the way to the outer borders of the academy.

"I see," Shizuru said blandly as she sipped her tea again.

This didn't seem to go down well with Haruka, "What do you mean 'I see?' There's students _pissing _with each other in broad daylight with no shame at all! And I demand that you, as the President, take action!"

Shizuru sighed, "First off, I do believe the word you are looking for is _kissing…" _Shizuru started, and quickly silenced Haruka's upcoming indignant protest with a lift of her finger, "…_And_, I do not see anything wrong with a little showing of affection among the students."

"Well, a hippie like you would say that, wouldn't you? But I am talking about the _morals _and _decadency _that we should value above everything else. One kiss can lead to hickies, and hickies can lead to inappropriate touching, and inappropriate touching can lead to _sex in the Director's rosebush! _And what the hell are you laughing at now? This is serious!"

Shizuru couldn't help it. The thought of the Director's "rosebush" being invaded like that was probably the funniest thing Shizuru had heard from Haruka in a while. "Nothing. Nothing at all, Suzushiro-san," Shizuru said as she settled herself down again to her usual cool and composed demeanour.

"Hmph! So are you going to do something about it or not?" Haruka pushed, crossing her arms.

Rather than allowing Haruka take on some kind of over-achieving policing action, Shizuru decided that she should appease her enough before she did something truly regrettable, "Very well, Suzushiro-san. I will look into it."

"Döh… Y-you will?" Haruka said, sounding somewhat bewildered as she wasn't exactly expecting the brunette to consent, like she usually didn't regardless how much Haruka raged about other important matters designed to maintain the order around campus.

"Yes. I will take care of it," Shizuru said again with a smile that would have convinced the grand jury if necessary. Of course Shizuru had no intention whatsoever to do anything regarding the matter, but if it only made Haruka back down a bit, then she figured a small lie wouldn't hurt anyone. In fact, the students would probably thank her in their sleep for dulling the looming blade of "justice" a bit on their behalf.

"W-well good then! That's what I was expecting to hear," Haruka said victoriously as she slowly got over her shock of the bubuzuke woman actually agreeing to do some work for a change.

"So, was there anything else?" Shizuru asked, trying politely to hint that Haruka's presence was starting to wear a bit thin.

"No, I don't think so…" Haruka said as she seemed to look around the room to see if indeed there wasn't anything further she needed to vent about. And then her eyes nailed on the box sitting on one of the flanking desks, another spark lighting in her eyes, "Oh, wait! What's this?"

"I do not know. It was delivered here while I was absent from the council room," Shizuru said as she sipped her tea again.

Haruka walked over to the box and flipped the top open, revealing a clump of metal, wires and other machinery parts.

"Ach! I can't believe those people," Haruka bit out.

"What is it, Suzushiro-san?" Shizuru inquired.

Turning around indignantly Haruka said, "These are some things I confiscated from the electronics club that were not abiding to the regulations of the academy or the needs of their club. I ordered them to pack it all up and deliver it to the Student Council office's storage room. But the nincompoops apparently just decided to leave it all right here. Oh, wait till I get my hands on them…"

"It is that serious?" Shizuru quietly asked.

"You give them a little responsibility for their actions, and SNAP! They're ready to bite the master's hand. Typical… and it's mostly your fault for being too lenient all the time, Bubuzuke!" Haruka said accusingly.

Shizuru, however, didn't seem to take offence. Instead she just smiled sweetly and countered Haruka's words with, "Well, in any case, that box cannot really be left sitting there either. Since it was through your orders that it is here in the first place, could you move it into the storage room yourself instead, Suzushiro-san?"

"Me?" Haruka asked.

"Yes. You can handle it, can you not?" Shizuru responded.

"Uh… sure. Just…" Haruka started, but was stopped when a certain devious thought popped into her mind, "It is rather heavy for me to carry on my own. How about giving me a hand, Fujino?"

Shizuru kept the smile on her lips, but the look in her eyes turned more staring, as if trying to ascertain whether Haruka was attempting to tell a joke or something, "Are you saying you cannot do it on your own? You are rather strong, are you not?"

_Snap! _Okay, that was a hit, but Haruka bit her tongue from saying what she would have normally said in favour of, "Well, yeah. But even I have my limits. I could throw my back trying to lift this alone." _That's right, Bubuzuke, I'm not letting you get off the hook that easy from doing something actually useful for a change._

Shizuru just smiled behind her desk. She saw what Haruka was trying to do. That smirk on the Executive Director's face didn't fool Shizuru for a second. The blonde wasn't exactly that subtle when it came to hiding her intentions. "Kikukawa-san has already went home?" she asked instead, while directing her gaze toward the door.

"Yes, she's already gone," Haruka said victoriously.

"I see," Shizuru said back as she slowly sipped her tea again.

"So… are you going to help me or what?" Haruka said, starting to get fed up with the other woman's evasiveness.

"Maybe you could go to the library and get one of those trolleys you could load the box on," Shizuru suggested.

Haruka stared back at the brunette. _I can't believe this! She's such an unbelievable snake! She'll do anything to slither away from doing anything even closely related to honest work! _Now Haruka didn't have any other choice anymore. This was a matter of pride and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to manage to coerce that bubuzuke woman into helping carrying this box even if it was the last thing she did. "If you think I'm going to go all the way to the library to get a trolley, you're out of your mind! The damn storage room is right there!" she said while pointing to the adjoining door in the other end of the room, "Now get your lazy ass off of that chair right now and help me carry this stupid box! It'll only take a couple of lousy seconds of your supposed 'precious' time!"

Shizuru kept her mask of serenity on throughout all that, but eventually came to the conclusion that she'd probably just get off easier if she'd do this one thing for Haruka. After all, despite outer appearances, carrying something like that wouldn't really be a big challenge to her, and she'd have plenty of opportunities to get back at Haruka for this at a later date.

Sighing deeply, Shizuru laid her cup down on the desk, stood softly up from her chair, smoothed out her uniform jacket with deliberately measured movements, and without missing a beat in the carefully set tempo of her motions, turned to Haruka and said in her smooth Kyoto-ben, combined with a firm smile adorning her lips, "Very well, Suzushiro-san."

Haruka looked a bit dumbfounded in front of Shizuru's grand display of dramatically choreographed theatrics. While there certainly was no love lost for the President, she had to (begrudgingly) admit that Shizuru was quite impressive to look at, no matter what you thought of her. After all, very few people could make the simple act of getting up from a seat look so elegantly refined and perfectly balanced down to the tiniest detail, and to top it all off give the action such a sense of dramatic gravitas that made this simple, everyday act feel almost like a moment of operatic monumentality.

As Shizuru took a step toward her, Haruka snapped herself out of the daze she had to her great consternation been descending in, and fixed a confidently hard expression on her face.

"Shall we?" Shizuru said with a confidently defiant look in her striking crimson eyes and a fixed smile on her soft, red lips, as if challenging Haruka with that ever present feeling of superiority that would have turned a lesser person into putty.

But Haruka wasn't going to be that person, "Sure."

Without breaking eye contact, both Haruka and Shizuru moved to the other ends of the box and grabbed the handles. Then, with one swift move, they lifted the box up and started carrying it toward the storage room. It was indeed heavy, but neither girl let it show, Haruka for being too proud and Shizuru for just being Shizuru.

It didn't really take a lot of effort to move the box the ten odd metres from the desk to the metal door at the back of the room. Once there, Haruka juggled her other arm free for a moment as she fished a key from her jacket pocket and opened the door. Pushing the door open, the two then stepped inside and quickly set the heavy box down in the back corner of the room revealed before them, next to a collection of other junk that had been piling in the room almost for, what it seemed, many years already.

Flicking on the light switch that caused a poorly-looking light bulb in the ceiling to flicker on with a faintly yellowish tint, barely illuminating the space with any real adequacy, and seemed more like a relic from the 19th Century, Haruka gave a critical once over to the room. The room itself wasn't particularly big as you wouldn't expect a storage room to be, but it wasn't exactly cramped either, the most of the space being taken by the mismatch of assorted items littering the walls, shelves and floor in a rather haphazard fashion. If anybody ever bothered to clean up the space, then it would perhaps better emphasise the roomier qualities of the area than the cramped ones, but as it was the whole room seemed more like a general dumping ground for stuff to be forgotten once they were left there. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes.

But just the same as the snow melts when it is squeezed against the warmth of your hand, this observation didn't have a chance of eluding Haruka's keen sense of order and discipline, and it certainly didn't take a great analyst to figure out such behaviour was not going to fly with her.

"Jeez, would you look at this place! What a complete _pigsty_! Honestly, don't people have any sense of keeping things tidy and well in order, or are everybody so indifferent to the state of the campus to not give a damn?" she raged majorly pissed off.

Shizuru instead gazed around indifferently, not really caring much for the room's condition and just waiting for Haruka to leave so that she might also go without seeming too rude… not that it would have much mattered when considering it was Haruka concerned here, but Shizuru still wanted to keep her well-bred poise high if for no-one else but herself. "I think the room is rather charming," Shizuru said somewhat mildly feigning interest.

"Charming?" Haruka said with a bit of incredulous contempt seeping into her voice at even the suggestion that this mess was somehow 'charming'. "The only thing _charming_ here is that steel door hiding this… this… _abomination_ out of sight! Charming… yeah right! Though I guess your standards of excellence are as flimsy as your abilities to lead the school as an authoritive leader in an important post. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised," Haruka scoffed at her immediate superior.

Shizuru simply ignored the barbs… as usual, instead keeping on unfalteringly the semblance of the carefree smile she usually wore, which by now Shizuru had perfected to its highest manifestation.

Haruka on the other hand continued on looking some more around the storage facility, already formulating ideas on how to fix this offending sight in the near future - perhaps as a new kind of a disciplinary move executed on a few hapless slackers - while giving out random huffs and puffs, reminding Shizuru slightly of a steam engine letting out steam to draw the most idiosyncratic comparison.

"Ah!" Haruka voiced suddenly, striding over to the side of a shelve right beside the open door, and grabbed a long stretch of thick cord randomly hanging from the shelves. "This for instance is a clear fire hazard!" she proclaimed as she held the cord for Shizuru to see.

Shizuru looked blankly at the cord. _This whole _room_ is a fire hazard… _she thought in a deadpan mindset, but didn't bother voicing her thoughts. She honestly just didn't care, and wondered how long _this _was now going to take. Her tea was getting cold.

But Haruka was of different mind and, having perceived an imminent threat, started pulling on the cord to dislodge it. Unfortunately it seemed that it was attached to the shelves more strongly than Haruka anticipated as it didn't seem to come off. After a couple of more stronger pulls Haruka then started to loose what ever little patience she possessed and decided to put all her might into ripping out her inanimate adversary, never even considering that it would probably be just easier to get a knife or something sharp like that to simply cut it off. _Maa… Haruka-san should really put her energies to better use than in these kinds of pointlessly unproductive endeavours… _Shizuru thought while resisting the impulse to sadly shake her head at her fellow student's antics.

However, after only a short while of Haruka pulling the cord with no apparent success, fate decided to step in at that very moment, putting forward a chain of events that would have consequences neither of the two girls were expecting to happen.

The cord unexpectedly snapped. The sudden jolt sent Haruka flying against the half-open door, causing it to slam shut. As Haruka landed on her butt on the floor, the shelves beside her shook a bit due to their sudden contact with the forces of gravity and inertia, causing a batch of five baseballs to promptly roll off a shelve and, one by one, drop on Haruka's head with resounding bonks underscored with several "ouches" and "oomphs" emanating from the downed girl's mouth.

Shizuru giggled a bit. _…Although she can be quite entertaining at times too… _she added inwardly, finding the scene very amusing.

Haruka didn't seem as appreciative as she held her head and shot a glare at Shizuru's direction, "Yeah, laugh it up, Bubuzuke! But why don't we just see how much you'll be laughing when _you're_ rolling around on the floor, why don't we?"

"Oh? And may I inquire why exactly would _I_ be 'rolling' around on the floor for?" Shizuru smiled back clearly still amused.

"Because I'm this close to clocking you in your pretty little face, that's why!"

"Ara! Haruka-san is so violent!" Shizuru said with a mirthful tone of voice, completely unconcerned.

Haruka simply looked at the Council President with nothing but exasperated contempt, but eventually succumbing to her fate of knowing there wasn't actually anything she could do to the brunette without selling out on her prized obedience of rules she had pledged to uphold, she just struggled back to her feet with a pronounced pout on her face.

"Are you all right, Haruka-san?" Shizuru asked a bit more sympathetically.

"Yeah… I'm fine," Haruka grumbled, "…and I don't remember giving you permission to call me 'Haruka-san' either."

"Oh? I thought you might enjoy it," Shizuru teased, not being able to resist her habitual urge to get reactions out of people, particularly when the target was somebody easy like Haruka.

"Hmph! Well, you can stop right now. I'm not your friend and I never will be," Haruka said stubbornly as she crossed her arms.

"Hmh… And here I was just trying to be nice," Shizuru said with a mock hurt look.

But whereas someone like Natsuki would have been in complete panic over such a response, Haruka just glared back, "Don't bother. I don't like you, I never have liked you, and I don't care to like you in the future, either. So you can quit wasting your time in trying to cash that."

"Aren't you being a little too unyielding there, Haruka-san? We are colleagues in the school council, after all."

"Which is all we'll ever be, and I'm perfectly fine in keeping it like that, too. And for the last time, stop calling me Haruka-san already!"

"Ara, ara! Very well, if it bothers you so much… Suzushiro-san," Shizuru said disarmingly.

"Good. And don't you format it, Bubuzuke," Haruka said with finality.

"Close enough," Shizuru said as she regarded Haruka with a gentle smile before a little idea crossed her mind that caused her lips to curl up in another smirk, "Although~…" she stretched.

"Eh…?" Haruka gave a somewhat apprehensive glare at the comment, knowing the snake before her was a devious one indeed. Obviously the crimson-eyed woman had just figured out she had something stashed in her sleeve yet.

"Ah, just a little thought that snuck up to me just now unbidden… but I do not believe I have ever given _you _permission to call me… umm… 'bubuzuke', have I?" Shizuru said with a cunning smile.

"Err…" Haruka voiced uneasily, starting to see a trap being set for her, though not really seeing what that trap was going to be like, or how much she wasn't going to like it. Though the odds were that since it _was _Fujino we were talking about here, it would most certainly be unpleasant.

"So, in the name of fairness… would it not be only appropriate that I would also get to call _you_ with a likewise affectionate… nickname," Shizuru said silky smooth. "Such as… what I do believe I have actually heard some other students refer to you as… what was it again?"

Haruka was now shifting in her place rather uneasily, hoping against hope that Shizuru wasn't thinking of…

"Oh, yes. Debochin."

No such luck!

"No… No, you… you can't," Haruka said nervously.

"Ara? And why not? It _would _only be fair, would it not? And it would be rather appropriate as well, considering Suzushiro-san _does _have quite an impressively sized forehead," Shizuru said innocently.

"No, you can't call me that! If you do, as the Student Council _President_, and with all the fans you have, then soon everybody will start calling me 'debochin' and my authority as the head of the Executive Committee will be completely ruined! I can't let that happen!" Haruka shouted desperately.

"Is that so? Well, isn't that a dilemma, then?" Shizuru purred with a look of shock etched on her face, knowing she had completely ensnared the blonde loudspeaker into her web now.

Haruka gritted her teeth, and gave Shizuru a cold glare. "Alright… name your price," she said testily.

Shizuru smiled widely at her and said smoothly as ever in her distinctive Kyoto-ben, "Do not worry, Suzushiro-san. I won't ask for the impossible. Only that you will allow me to call you 'Haruka-san.'"

Haruka's eyes narrowed a slight bit. Was that really all she wanted? Or was she trying to trick her again? "Why?"

"Why not?" Shizuru asked in return.

"I mean, what are you up to? Why's this name thing so important to you all of a sudden?" Haruka asked extremely suspiciously.

Shizuru just gave a small laugh before responding, "It is nothing sinister, Suzushiro-san. I simply think 'Haruka-san' is so much more pleasant to say than 'Suzushiro-san'. 'Haruka-san.' 'Mou, Haruka-san.' 'Haruka-saaaan~…' Rolls off the tongue rather nicer, no? Suzushiro-san is quite the mouthful. And in exchange I will let you call me whatever you wish. So, what say? Do we have a deal?"

Haruka shot daggers from her eyes at the devious woman standing in front of her, yet again managing to defeat Haruka in such an infuriating way. Well, what other choice did she have? Give this allowance, or be ridiculed by the _entire _school's student body with an incongruous nickname, fully sanctioned by the Student Council itself. "Very well! You win again, you tea-sipping viper!" she bit out, seething in fury.

"Ara, very good then, Haruka-san. Although please do not get carried away with the… colourful metaphors too much, agreed?" Shizuru smiled in victory.

"Bah! Don't get cocky! I'm a high-minded person, so I'll give you this little freedom. But don't push your puck!" Haruka said angrily.

"Whatever you say, Haruka-san," Shizuru smiled.

"Gah! I've had enough of you for the day! Consider the matter closed. I'm going back to the dorms, and far away from you, Fujino," Haruka said vehemently as she turned around on her heels and grabbed the door knob and… to her surprise found the door didn't open. Jiggling it some more, and then twisting it with all her strength while putting her back into pulling at it, the door remained closed.

"Ara, Haruka-san? Something the matter?" Shizuru asked.

Haruka glanced back at Shizuru, before jiggling the knob some more.

"Haruka-san?" Shizuru tried again.

"Umm… It's nothing! The… the door… It… it just doesn't seem to… to open… at this time…" Haruka said a bit nervously.

"Oh? As in 'not opening' meaning that the door has… locked itself?" Shizuru voiced her suspicion.

Haruka's forehead was starting to get a bit sweaty at the implication, "It… it would appear so…"

"Ara, ara…" Shizuru gave a small, light giggle upon seeing how silly Haruka was looking, causing the blonde to turn around with another glare.

"And you find this situation somehow funny, do you Bubuzuke? You're in here too, you know!" she growled.

"Of course, but hardly is this something to get upset about, right Haruka-san? Meaning, you _do_ have a key for the door, do you not?" Shizuru said stating the obvious.

Haruka immediately got her lioness-like confidence back as she exclaimed, "Well, yeah! Of course I have a key! What do you think, I'm stupid or something?" Hiding her embarrassment from not realising this simple little fact right away, she started rummaging in her pockets with renewed vigour. However, after a while of going through all her pockets without the desired success apart from finding an eraser, a pencil stub, some loose change and a small pad of marking paper, she was starting to get nervous again. "I have it in here somewhere… some… where… umm…"

"Haruka-san?" Shizuru asked a bit more seriously this time, her smile faltering a bit.

"Umm… Um… Except… Uh… that I think I… umm… actually left… the… the key… in the lock… on the other side…" Haruka said hesitantly as the realisation of their situation started to dawn on her in all its horror.

"Ara…?" Shizuru said, her eyes widening a slight bit in understanding as Haruka gave a look of utter destitution.

_Oh. Shit._

_

* * *

The first, and oldest, part of the story is now there. After this the real action starts. A remark about the Haruka nickname: I don't think it actually appears in the anime, but "Debochin" (large forehead) does appear in the manga, and Tate often refers to Haruka with the name. So, that's a little mixing of the two mediums if you wondered. Hope you've enjoyed thus far, and stay tuned for the following._


	2. Part 2

_Second part, and conflict is already in the air. Hopefully this will retain being at least somewhat interesting as promised by the first part as it is not exactly easy to write about two characters being captive within a small enclosed space and think up stuff for them to do that is both entertaining and featuring enough variety to hold interest. Anyway, hope any possible readers enjoy regardless._

_

* * *

6:12 pm._

BANG BANG BANG!

"Help! Help us! We're in here! Help! We're locked in and can't get out! Somebody get us out of here! GET _ME _OUT OF HERE! I'M SUZUSHIRO HARUKA DAMNIT! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE WITH BUBUZUKEEE!" Haruka bellowed as she pounded on the door with both her fists and feet, the very personification of pigheaded and determined stubbornness.

Shizuru, on her part, was the complete opposite to the raging, panicking blonde, having vacated to sitting down on a chair next to a long, old table on the opposite wall from the door. Unlike Haruka, Shizuru was content to watch the blonde's pointless flailing without feeling the necessity to join in doing something she knew would not be of any use. And trying to dissuade Haruka seemed just as pointless an exercise to attempt.

BANG BANG BANG! THUD THUD THUD! "HELP!"

However… and this was a big 'however': Haruka had been at it now for almost 15 minutes straight, and Shizuru was frankly starting to get a major headache from all the banging and shouting. And seeing as Haruka didn't seem even close to having depleted her energy supply, this activity was likely to go on for hours if she was not stopped.

Sighing deeply Shizuru decided that, in order to save her eardrums, she'd really have to interject on Haruka sooner or later.

BANG BANG THUD SMASH!

The sooner the better.

"Haruka-san…" Shizuru started.

THUD THUD THUD!

Shizuru sighed again as Haruka obviously didn't hear her.

"Haruka-san," she tried a bit more audibly.

BANG THUD THUMP!

"HARUKA-SAN!" Shizuru screeched uncharacteristically loud, causing Haruka finally to stop her incessant banging and turn around to Shizuru with a stupefied look on her face that Shizuru would have laughed at if she wasn't feeling so frazzled.

"Wha…?" Haruka voiced incredulously. _Did… did Bubuzuke just… shout?_

Shizuru, on the other hand, took a long cleansing breath, cleared her throat for added effect, and steadied herself once more to her usual stateliness. Opening her eyes slowly, she said, "Thank you for stopping, Haruka-san."

This seemed to snap Haruka out of her stupor as well, "Oh…? What, you want something, Fujino?"

"No. I simply wanted to tell you that all that banging and shouting is not going to accomplish anything other than making me deaf," Shizuru stated calmly.

"Huh? _Calling for help _isn't going to accomplish anything?" Haruka asked incredulously, as if Shizuru had just suddenly decided to descend to the level of a retarded five-year-old. "What? You want to stay here the whole night, is that it, you tea freak?"

"No, that is not what I said," Shizuru said patiently, "I only meant that it is useless because there is nobody left in the school building to hear you."

Haruka stood stock still for a few second, absorbing the words, before a frown formed on her face, "What do you mean there's nobody left in the school?"

"Forgive me, I thought I was not being obtuse… I am only saying that everybody has already left for home. Students, faculty… everybody. We are the only ones left here," Shizuru said.

"Everybody's… gone? Really? Even… even the cleaning staff?" Haruka asked with bulbous eyes.

"Well, was it not you who decreed that you wanted to keep control of this floor for your own ease of supervision, and thus wanted your own Executive Committee members to do clean ups here instead of anybody else?" Shizuru asked, and after receiving a nod from Haruka, continued, "Well, I do believe they have already completed their duties quite a while back and have returned to the dorms by now. Also, I do think it is rather impossible for any of the other, actual cleaning staff, to hear us on the other floors. Otherwise I am certain they would have already come to free us."

Haruka looked as if somebody had just played marimba on her head with a wooden log for two hours as each word Shizuru had spoken in that smooth, infuriatingly calm and logical tone of hers had deflated her one syllable at a time. She indeed had made such arrangements and now she was forced to pay the price for her diligence, "Why? What am _I _being punished for? I've done everything by the book! I can't be stuck here with that blasted Bubuzuke! I haven't done anything prom…"

"Wrong…"

"Shut up! This is like a nightmare. No, this is worse than a nightmare. It's a freakin' apothecary!"

"Apocalypse, Haruka-san," Shizuru corrected Haruka again. "And I do think you are over-exaggerating the problem."

"Oh, am I now?" Haruka sarcastically barked back, imitating Shizuru's accent to further drive the barb home.

"Well, it is not as if we will be stuck in here forever. All we need to do is weather it out until tomorrow morning, and Tate-san, Kikukawa-san, or Reito-san will eventually let us out," Shizuru finished.

"Oh, aren't you the forever flower child of positive thinking, Fujino? You mean to tell me you'd rather sit here the whole damn night with no food, no bed and no toilet instead of trying to figure out a way to get out of here?" Haruka asked challengingly.

"Ara, then you have a plan to get us out of here on our own?" Shizuru asked.

"Umm… maybe…" Haruka said uncertainly when suddenly being questioned on it, but she quickly recovered, "I mean… Yeah, of course I do! You see I habitually like to use the one thing that you often tend to ignore completely: the brain!" Haruka said as she tapped the side of her head smugly.

"Well, in that case perhaps Haruka-san would like to share the results of her brilliant intellectual prowess," Shizuru said with a sickly sweet smile.

"Sure, yeah. Of course, yeah. Uhh… Ummm…" Haruka said stalling for time and looking desperately around the room for something she could use. She'd be damned if she'd look like a fool again in front of the bubuzuke woman, and indeed after searching for a solution for a while she nailed her eyes on something that gave her an idea, "Ah!"

Haruka quickly paced to another set of shelves and picked up a confiscated Swiss army knife in her hand, flicking out a spike-like appendix, "See this? Now to put my master plan into action! I'm going to pick the lock!"

"Ara? Really?" Shizuru said innocently.

"That's right, no problem. Piece of Cornflakes!" Haruka said proudly.

Shizuru looked on with a slight hint of amusement, but finally offered another sweet smile, "Well, then I shall leave everything to you, Haruka-san."

"Yeah, I'll show you the true power of the Suzushiro Executive Committee's excellence!" Haruka stated triumphantly.

- O -

_6:33 pm._

"Gnnnh… Ummmhh… Grrr… Gaah…" Haruka voiced her frustration as she twisted and turned the spike in the lock. She had been at it for a good 15 minutes already without making a bit of progress, and she was getting frustrated and embarrassed. But just the thought of seeing that knowing and arrogant smile on Fujino Shizuru's face upon Haruka's newest failure was enough to spur her on despite the whole exercise seeming to be pointless and just not working. _Damn it, open you stupid door! Don't do this to me, damnit!_

Shizuru sat quietly with her eyes closed. She already knew how futile Haruka's toiling was, but she figured she'd just let the blonde catch on to that piece of fact all on her own. But still, seeing her keeping at it so tenaciously was just too much for Shizuru to bare, the elemental urge to irritate the loudmouthed girl getting impossible for her to resist in the end, "How is it going, Haruka-san?"

"Fine. Just fine…" Haruka grumbled, not even bothering to look behind her.

"Ah… I was only thinking on how much longer this is going to take. I could use a spot of tea, and I would appreciate if you would get the door open soon," Shizuru said as innocently as she could muster her voice to sound.

"You and your tea… stupid teabag… wonder it doesn't drip out of her ears… regular sponge head…" Haruka mumbled in irritation while continuing her lock twisting.

"Haruka-san?" Shizuru asked again.

"WHAT?" Haruka blared, whirling toward Shizuru extremely pissed off and frustrated.

"Is lock picking usually this time consuming?" Shizuru asked, not a slight bit perturbed by Haruka's stance.

Haruka glared at Shizuru as she breathed in and out like an angry bull, "Well, if you think you can do better, then be my guest! You're so perfect, so _you_ get us out then."

"Ara, what makes you think I would know how to pick a lock?" Shizuru laughed.

"Well, considering how you're always loitering around that delinquent Kuga, I bet she's taught you all sorts of unsavoury tricks and criminal habits," Haruka barked.

"Oh, Natsuki has certainly taught me all sorts of tricks for sure, but I am afraid picking a lock has not been one of them," Shizuru laughed back.

"So in other words you're as useless as you were the day you were born. I should have known," Haruka said acidly as she turned back to the door.

"But I thought Haruka-san was an expert in this," Shizuru mentioned.

Haruka was quick to turn right back, "Do you _really _want to get punched that bad, Fujino?"

"Mmm… Haruka-san is so mean. I was simply offering you encouragement," Shizuru frowned.

"If that's your idea of _encouraging _then please don't bother. I'm not as saintly as I'm rumoured to be, and I wouldn't feel bad in showing you your place, so don't push your luck! Understood?" Haruka raged.

"Haruka-san should really calm down before she gets an aneurism," Shizuru said with a sunny smile, completely disregarding Haruka's words.

"AAARRRHH! Don't you listen to anything I say? Is there some kind of a mental barrier that makes you not understand plain Japanese, you Kyotoan freak of nature?" Haruka said, seeming ready to pop a blood vessel.

Shizuru just giggled at her in amusement, causing Haruka to hold her breath and turn around away from seeing the brunette's infuriating face. _God, I have to get out of here! I can't possibly stand a whole night with Bubuzuke alone!_

Haruka once more tried to pry the lock open with the pin, but she was already too frazzled to have much patience to continue. Thus only a few seconds later she gave up in a spectacular huff, "GAH! This stupid thing is broken or something!" and she promptly threw the knife hard on the floor so that it skidded to the other end of the room. "You stupid door, why won't you open?" she screamed as she started kicking and hitting it again, desperation starting to show in her actions.

Hearing the return of the ear-splitting thudding, Shizuru decided that in order to protect her precious ears it would be best to nip that action right at the bud, "Haruka-san, I already told you it is pointless trying to get help by banging on the door like that."

"I'm not trying to get help. I'm trying to bust down the door, that's what I'm doing," Haruka said back, not stopping her kicking.

Shizuru sighed, "Haruka-san, it is highly unlikely for you to be able to kick down the door. It is rather thick and not likely to break down even with all the brute strength you apply to it…"

"I don't care. I'll kick it until it yields, or opens up at the very least."

"Not likely as the door opens to the _inside _of the room_. _Trust me, you will only end up getting a sore foot, so you could do both of us a favour and just relax. Make the most of the situation," Shizuru reasoned.

"The most of the situation? You don't tell me what to do, Bubuzuke, is that clear?" Haruka growled, resuming her kicking once more.

Shizuru sighed in defeat, giving up trying to talk to the boneheaded girl, and instead proceeded to look around the room to find something with which to cover her ears. Haruka would quit when she had enough.

- O -

_7:03 pm_

"Oh, my poor feet…" Haruka moaned as she sat on a worn out couch opposite to the table and rubbing her sore toes.

"It would do good for Haruka-san to once in a while listen to other peoples warnings," Shizuru said with a 'you should have listened to me' tone as she played around with the wool fluffs she had used to block out Haruka's efforts from her ears with.

"Yeah, yeah…" Haruka grumbled reluctantly, not feeling too inclined to give Shizuru the satisfaction of admitting that, yes, she was right again.

Thus silence ensued in a stifling atmosphere, Haruka not wanting to have really any interaction with the red-eyed brunette, while Shizuru just leaned back in her chair, content to simply absorb the silence around her that had finally descended on the storage room.

However, as was to be expected, whereas Shizuru could well appreciate the state of silence and meditative contemplation, Haruka was finding it increasingly difficult to just sit back and not do anything. In fact, the whole sense of stillness around her was starting to grate at her already shoddy nerves. Haruka was by nature a getting-her-hands-dirty type of person, and this kind of inactivity just wasn't what she was built to tolerate for prolonged periods of time.

The big problem she was facing, though, was the obvious issue that she was now stuck in a fairly small space with no means to get out until somebody came and twisted the key on the other side of the door separating her from the rest of the world, meaning essentially one of two things: either Haruka would have to bite her tooth and sit still until she was let out of her accidental prison, or alternatively she'd have to think of something to do within the room for the time being to while away the, what seemed likely to be, hours to come.

The only question really was what could she possible do in this little prison of hers?

"Hey, Bubuzuke?" Haruka started.

"…Yes, Haruka-san?" Shizuru responded languidly, feeling somewhat mournful at the thought that the couple of precious minutes of peace and quiet she had managed to enjoy with Haruka in the same space would unfortunately most likely now be over again.

"I'm bored," Haruka stated.

Shizuru opened her eyes and turned to look at Haruka with a questioning expression.

Haruka waited for a moment for Shizuru to say something, but as the Kyotoan didn't seem to get the hint, she said in an exasperated tone, "Do I need to spell it out for you?"

Shizuru put on the most innocent face she could muster and stated, "I do not think that is necessary. I know quite well how 'bored' is spelled."

Haruka facepalmed.

"Are you all right, Haruka-san?" Shizuru asked concerned as Haruka cradled her head in her hands… or at least Shizuru sounded like what concerned people were expected to sound like.

"I… did… not… mean it… like… that," Haruka said testily, emphasising every single word as if she was talking to a toddler. Lifting her head from her hands, she continued, "I meant, do you have any bright ideas as to what to do to spend the time with?"

"Sitting around quietly is not enough for Haruka-san?" Shizuru wondered.

"No it is not! You can't expect me to just sit here for who knows how many hours without doing anything worthwhile, can you?" Haruka barked back.

Shizuru's only response was a slight tilt of the head, prompting Haruka to try and find something to do on her own since Shizuru was once more proving to be a complete waste of space. "There has to be something here to pass the time with…" she mumbled to herself before it hit her like a bolt of lightning. Snapping her fingers, she said, "I got it! Hey, Fujino, what's the one thing that this room needs the most?"

"A door with no lock?"

"Besides that!"

"A window?"

"…No!"

"Better lighting?"

"Will you shut up! It was a rhetorical question. All you needed to say was 'what', not give a dissection! I _meant_ what this room needs is a good and proper _clean-up!_" Haruka finished emphatically.

"Ah. Well, you never specified the nature of the need, so it would have been rather difficult for me to have made an educated guess based on the facts you supplied, which is nothing to say you failed to point out your question was rhetorical in the first place," Shizuru said as she closed her eyes again.

"Yeah, whatever! …Anyway, this should keep us preoccupied and productive for a good few hours at the very least," Haruka concluded as she clapped her hands together and started rolling her sleeves up. "So, come on, Fujino! Get up and lets get to work forthwith so we'll get a good start with this."

However, Shizuru simply eyed Haruka a few moments before quietly, but firmly, stating, "No."

This was enough to stop Haruka square in her tracks. Did she mishear or -understand? 'No?' It took her a while to get her bearings back on course as she stumbled, "W-what? No? What… - what do you mean with 'no'?"

"I meant exactly what I said. I have no desire whatsoever to do anything about this room," Shizuru calmly continued.

Haruka could barely believe her own ears. The President was refusing to clean up? What kind of an attitude was _that _supposed to be? And she didn't even bother to hide her reluctance!

As Haruka continued to stare at Shizuru seemingly dumbfounded, the latter decided that perhaps a little clarification was in order, "Do not misunderstand me, Haruka-san. By no means am I denying you from the pleasures of cleaning this room, but to be clear there is no 'we' in this particular activity."

That was enough to pop Haruka back to her usual self, "Huh? Wait… you mean you're just going to sit there and make me do _all _the work on my own?"

"Mmm… I believe that is roughly the idea," Shizuru smiled back.

"I… I can't believe this! You lazy louse! What… what do you think gives you the right to treat me like some kind of a slave?" Haruka raged utterly flabbergasted.

"My prerogative as the Student Council President, of course. And was it not Haruka-san herself who wished to pass the time in this manner? Therefore I do not see any reason why _I_ should get involved in any of this to begin with," Shizuru explained.

"Common decency perhaps? To help? To show you're actually a useful human being? That my low opinion of you won't get any lower? Perhaps?" Haruka reasoned. Shizuru, however, simply smiled back in that infuriatingly placid way, as if taunting Haruka for further action.

"Gah! What am I saying?" Haruka gave up, "Guess I should blame myself, really, for holding out hope that maybe you might actually have _some_ value left in you I might have missed before. But no! You've definitely proved _that _error of judgement quite clearly."

"Mm… Haruka-san is so mean. I might think that she does not really like me," Shizuru lamented.

"Geh… You mean you just _now_ figured that out? Talk about not listening to other people. You're worse than I am!" Haruka said exasperated.

"Maa…" Shizuru purred.

"Oh, how I sometimes wish I'd have as selective a filtering in my ears as you have so that I could escape from being so utterly frustrated every single time you open your god-forsaken mound!" the blonde moaned.

"Mouth," Shizuru unconsciously corrected, inwardly flinching at the sudden realisation that she seemingly was quickly becoming a Kikukawa-san 2 when it came to Haruka's malapropisms, before continuing with a sweet smile, "And I too often wish I could be as oblivious as Haruka-san is, but we cannot always get what we wish for, can we?"

"…That does it!" Haruka yelled a few octaves higher as she slammed her fist on the table next to her, "Come here, Fujino, so I can annihilate you!"

However Shizuru simply giggled softly at the threat as she said, "Haruka-san should really take it easy. If she continues to over-stress herself so much, her complexion will suffer and she will lose her precious youth all too quickly. And none of us wish for that, now do we?"

"See, see? This… this… this is exactly what I'm talking about! You completely ignore everything I say and change the topic to something totally irreverent! You… you are by far the most infuriating woman I've ever met in my life, and that's taking into account every slacker and delinquent I've ever seen! You… you Bubuzuke harlot!" the blonde let rip.

Shizuru on the other hand just looked at Haruka innocently, "So Haruka-san does not care about her beauty?"

That was enough for Haruka. That was really enough. Her brain simply cooked over and she could not even gather enough thought power for a proper retort. Therefore she just grabbed the sides of her head and shook it a bit in disbelief with a distantly fixed gaze in her eyes.

"Haruka-san?" Shizuru probed gently when Haruka had stayed frozen in that position for almost a full half-a-minute.

No change.

"Haruka-san? Are you all right?" Shizuru tried again.

In response Haruka leaned her elbows on the table while still cradling her head in her hands.

_Ara… I wonder if I pushed her a bit too far… _Shizuru thought, starting to actually get a little worried about the loudmouthed bullhorn's inexplicable behaviour, and soon came to a conclusion as to the best course of action this situation required. _Well… desperate times need desperate measures, I suppose…_

"Haruka-san? Do you still wish to clean the room?" Shizuru asked slowly so as to be sure her words carried into her colleague's ear.

"Clean?" Haruka distantly echoed, the familiar, safe and orderly word being enough to wiggle into her consciousness past her mind's catatonia.

"Yes, clean. Put everything in perfect order in this messy room. And if Haruka-san wishes, I will help her out, too," Shizuru said smilingly.

At that Haruka slowly turned her head toward the President and, after gathering her wits about her a bit, gave the brunette a slightly disbelieving stare, "…You… I mean, _you _would… help me?"

"Ara, is that somehow a strange thought to consider?"

"When it's you saying it, yes," Haruka said back straightforward.

"Haruka-san… so certain of herself…" Shizuru almost purred, causing Haruka to blush and vehemently turn away from the infuriating woman's thinly veiled insinuation. "Who knows… maybe Haruka-san will be taken by surprise…"

"Allow me to be doubtful…" Haruka grumbled in response.

"Have a little faith, Haruka-san! You just haven't seen me in action. Trust me, I am quite capable for this sort of work," Shizuru laughed.

Haruka turned back around with a deadpan impression. The brunette simply wore a placidly reassuring smile, looking perfectly innocent and sincere. _Hmm… Is she being for real? Maybe Fujino's really not trying to be a slacker _this _time. Could she actually be serious about this? So hard to tell from that face, though… But can I really give her the benefit of the doubt with this? To… trust her?_

"Haruka-san could use some cream on those lines under her eyes," Shizuru observed with her usual smile.

"BUCK YOU, FUJINO!" Haruka barked angrily as she nearly smashed her fist through the tabletop, whatever charitable thoughts she had entertained about the tea addict dropping away like ancient plaster.

"Fu…" Shizuru started.

"NO! Don't! …Don't… you… _dare… _finish that," Haruka hissed malevolently.

Shizuru closed her mouth and decided it was best she stayed quiet.

_

* * *

Second part done, and third will appear in due time. By the time I get further into this, I'm hoping to also introduce some more serious elements, as well as toning down Haruka a bit and perhaps doing something about Shizuru, too. But will just have to see how that'll shape up._


	3. Part 3

_So as I haven't updated in a while, this chapter is about two pages shorter than the previous two, but I think this is still sufficiently long enough to be labelled as a chapter all its own._

_Funny thing, this was truly supposed to be a short story, but going into Chapter Three it's turning out a lot longer than I ever expected. And I'm not even near done yet! I mean, how much can you truly write about two people trapped in a small room together? Apparently more than I ever thought._

_

* * *

7:43 pm_

The next 20 minutes or so was spent in a bustle of action as the two girls set out to tidy their enforced little prison up… or well, to be more accurate, Haruka was seen bustling about while Shizuru's particular contributions were most decidedly debatable.

Despite her promises, the only things Shizuru had truly managed to accomplish over that last 20 minutes were to stack a pile of adjacent papers into two sets, moved the chair she had been sitting on against the wall opposite to the closed door and then back to its old place again, scrunched up her nose at the dusty surfaces she wasn't entirely convinced she wanted to touch at all, and now she was simply looking at the over-crowded shelves with an air of contemplation, seemingly trying to decide what she was supposed to do exactly.

Contrary to Shizuru, Haruka on her part had shed her uniform jacket and had been moving in around like a machine in clearing up boxes of junk, rearranging the shelves on her part of the room, and generally just being the poster child of efficiency, hard work, and GUTS!

But if you thought that Haruka had not noticed Shizuru's less than dynamic grip on the task at hand, you'd be dead wrong. Haruka just tried to ignore it, thinking that, no matter what, this was still the same useless Bubuzuke woman who was a constant thorn in her side, and who had somehow managed to steal everybody's votes for the student council presidency with just pretty, empty words and a smile, while she had to content with only Yukino and a couple of others showing support; a truly disappointing day for justice it had been, indeed.

But now the damn woman wasn't even doing the little work that she had done a moment before. Heck, she wasn't even _pretending_ to work! As much as Haruka tried to put this out of her mind, in the end she just couldn't. She could not let Fujino off the hook for this blatant slacking off. Not on her watch.

"Oi! Bubuzuke! Will you stop daydreaming there and doing nothing! Get to work! We'll never get anything done if you don't get a move on already!" Haruka said as she heavily dropped another box of papers down on the table.

Shizuru, however, quirked her head toward Haruka and smiled amicably, "But I am indeed working, Haruka-san."

"Fujino… standing around doing nothing isn't working! It's the very opposite of work! It's… not doing any work," the blonde argued completely frustrated.

"Ah, but that is not true. I am in the process of a very important phase in this operation. I am in fact _planning," _Shizuru beamed back.

"Planning?" Haruka echoed dumbfounded.

"'Planning is half the work done'," Shizuru quoted sagely.

Haruka clicked her tongue at that and scoffed, "Where'd you get that bit of philosophical wisdom? A cheesy fortune cookie?"

"Fortune cookies do not have cheese in them," Shizuru stated, and continued before Haruka could interrupt, "And no, I got that 'bit of philosophical wisdom' from my father."

"Oh…" Haruka dumbly said.

"Yes, he has high aspirations that one day I will be seminally involved in the family business, so he has always told me 'Zuru-chan, always be sure to have a plan first before doing anything. Once you have a solid plan, the chance of a failure will be infinitesimally small.' Thus I have always followed his sound advice with everything I do," Shizuru finished her explanation.

"Well, that's all fine and good, but you should also sometimes practice the _functional_ part too: namely once you've planned everything out then you should also _execute _it! Like now! Tidying up the shelves is hardly anything requiring that much _thinking_ instead of _doing! _This is hardly pocket science after all," Haruka told her.

Shizuru consciously let the slip slide for fear of Yukino'ing herself too much, and instead continued as carefree as before, "Do not worry, Haruka-san! I have everything almost entirely thought out already. In fact, I believe I know perfectly well where to start now." With that said, she took a step forward, took hold of a randomly dangling cord, and gently yanked at it, apparently trying to dislodge it.

However, the results were rather more unexpected and dramatic than anyone would have thought as this small yank unleashed a chain reaction that, through a complex logistical set of reaction and counter-reaction, effectively brought down the entire contents of the shelves in one fell swoop. Shizuru's heightened HiME senses immediately kicked into action as she quickly jumped back to save her toes from being crushed under the falling debris and manoeuvred herself to sit on top of the big table at her side just as all the junk started covering the floor.

After around 15 seconds of colliding metal, wood and other industrial noises filling the small room in a deafening cacophony of crashing noise and grinding dissonance that made the girls' skins crawl, stillness once more descended upon the surroundings with only billows of dust causing any real movement in the air. Shizuru and Haruka were both stock still, looking a mixture of shock and bewilderment at what had just happened as clearly neither seemed to have expected this outcome from that little action of Shizuru's delicate fingers.

After a few more seconds of complete silence had passed, Shizuru recovered first as she quietly moved her right index finger to rest just below her lower lip, the spitting image of an innocent little girl who had accidentally shattered her mother's favourite vase, and timidly muttered, "Oops…",

Haruka facepalmed, "Fujino… I have serious worries about your father's company…" Haruka could already feel the migraine coming on.

"…Perhaps I miscalculated," Shizuru told the blonde.

"Ya think?" Haruka ground her teeth.

Shizuru just looked meek as she gently jumped off the table and started bending down to pick up the junk from the floor.

"No! Don't!" Haruka quickly stopped her, sounding more frustrated than she had all day, "…Just… just don't."

"Ara?" Shizuru asked curiously.

"Don't… don't touch a thing. Okay? Just… just… leave it and… and sit down. Maybe that way you'll do less damage," Haruka bit off bitterly, feeling utterly fed up with the useless Bubuzuke standing in the middle of the mess she had managed to create within only a few little measly seconds.

"As Haruka-san commands," Shizuru said complacently as she made her way back to her seat and sat down, making at the same time an unconscious swipe of her right hand over the table surface to grab her mug of tea… only to then realise immediately after that in fact her tea was still unfortunately sitting in the council room and out of her current reach. "Ah…" she said disappointed.

In the meantime Haruka was still shaking her head feeling very frustrated, as she quietly grumbled to herself, "…Perfect plan, eh? 'Planning is half the work done.' Yeah, right… now there's twice the amount of work than there was to begin with… Stupid Bubuzuke…"

But ultimately Haruka came to the conclusion that fretting about spilled milk wasn't going to accomplish anything worthwhile, Fujino being Fujino after all, and the mess certainly wouldn't clean itself up on its own. Sure it would have been nice if Fujino was helping out as well, but Haruka feared that getting her involved with this operation would only make things infinitely worse as the President had already so helpfully demonstrated on her very own volition. Thus Haruka decided to take the high road and let it pass. For now, at least.

Having consciously avoided looking at Shizuru for this long, Haruka finally decided to give the brunette a disdainfully withering glance, and by so doing almost ended up peeing in her panties out of shock.

The reason: Shizuru looked mildly dejected - like a little girl who had been reprimanded for doing something naughty. And Shizuru never _ever _looked anything but calm, composed, and unperturbed about anything. For her to show even a small hint that she was bothered by something was unprecedented, and Haruka rightfully would never have expected to get to see such a rare expression flash across the President's face. Shizuru wasn't exactly sulking as that would have been too much to ask, but the change was still noticeable enough to make Haruka grab a double-take.

Being suddenly confronted by something so alien - and also to Haruka quite shocking a change - she lost all her previous reasoning and dislike toward the brunette she had been entertaining just a few seconds before in a swirl of confusion, uncertainty and nigh-on-panic. _What the hell just happened? Did… Did Fujino get… upset over what I told her? No… No, of course not! Bubuzuke never gets upset over anything, the tea-happy lolicon… But then what? What if she really is? Did… How… Is it my fault? Was I just… too harsh on her about the shelves? Oh, curse all the little goblins Yukino thinks are hiding in the bushes late at night! What am I supposed to do now?_

While Haruka was trying to organise her thoughts into something resembling a reasonably cohesive order, Shizuru on her seat gave an infinitesimal sigh that made Haruka go in her heightened state of nervous perception almost over the edge with panic.

_She really _is _upset! The hell am I supposed to do now? I mean, sure this is Fujino we're talking about… but still. This is just not normal. If Fujino's affected in a way that it shows this obviously, that means this is serious! Jeez, guess there's no helping it. I have to do something._

"Fujino…" Haruka started unsurely, but still with a brusque voice.

Shizuru immediately sat more upright and her normal smile instantaneously settled over her lips, the President inwardly scolding herself for almost letting her usual mask inadvertently slip off in front of Suzushiro Haruka of all people. Turning toward Haruka as if nothing had ever happened, Shizuru calmly asked, "Yes?"

"Don't give me that! I saw it!" Haruka said back adamantly.

Shizuru looked confused, "Saw it? Saw what?"

"I'm not blind, you know! You're clearly upset now, aren't you? I saw it bright as day," Haruka stated.

_Curses, _Shizuru muttered in her mind as she fixed a mildly amused expression on her face, "Ara, upset? Me? I am afraid I do not quite know what Haruka-san is referring to."

Haruka just gave a frustrated growl at Shizuru's brusque way off waving off the issue as if it had never been there at all, and continued surprisingly patiently, "Look, Fujino. You know I'm not your biggest fan or anything… or a fan at all really, but well… I guess… that is… what I'm trying to say is that… that if I upset you in any way, then I'm… I'm… That is… I'm… I guess…"

Shizuru looked at Haruka struggling with what she wanted to say, but decided not to push her as she continued to look at her.

"I'm… Damn… Look… Curses! I… I'm… I'm sorry, okay?" Haruka managed to force the words out of her mouth, and causing Shizuru's eyebrows to lift higher in surprise.

"Ara ma…?"

"Look, don't think I'm just being buddy buddy with you here, but I'm just saying… that is… look, it really could have happened to anybody," Haruka finished with an effort.

"Truly?" Shizuru asked curiously, wondering what had made the usually blustery blonde to become so sympathetically soft all of a sudden - or as sympathetically soft as she could expect Haruka to be - as to actually utter a plea of forgiveness to her… whatever her reason for doing so ultimately entailed.

Haruka shuffled her feet uncomfortably before she resumed reluctantly, "Yeah. And I guess… I guess I'm… maybe… _partially_ to be blamed too."

"Oh…" Shizuru said with a bit more understanding creeping into her voice, once more allowing herself to adopt the slightly pensive look she had moments before as she knew there was not much point in pretending anymore that nothing was bothering her as her gig was obviously up. _Ah, I should be more careful…_

"Yeah… I mean… I guess you're just human too. And… these things… happen… from time to time. Even to the best of us. So I guess I shouldn't have… you know… yeah," Haruka concluded her big semi-encouraging pep talk.

Shizuru looked thoughtful, but nodded anyway, "I suppose you are correct, Haruka-san."

"Of course I am! Point is, don't beat yourself over the head because of this. It'll all work out in the end, and we're all allowed to be human too and make mistakes," Haruka said with determination, taking up her role of the supporting authority figure with increasing aplomb, "Just keep your head up high! It'll all look better again tomorrow!"

"Mmm. Yes, you are in the right, Haruka-san," Shizuru said with a likewise determined expression, "Indeed, it is truly rather tragic that my tea _is_ locked in the other room, but I suppose I can weather it without a cuppa until tomorrow morning."

This single sentence was enough to instantaneously freeze Haruka in her spot for several seconds and to cause her previous encouragement to ripple out as fast as it had come, her mouth fixing itself into a silly grin as her brain synapses momentarily hit an empty spot, and as her brain activity once more started to increase as her brain rebooted, so did said lips start to precariously point downward.

"W-what?" she asked.

"And you are quite correct in owning up by saying it indeed _is_ your fault as well to an extent," Shizuru continued.

"What?" Haruka repeated a bit louder.

"But I do think this is not the time to point fingers and assign blame, either. Thus I am quite willing to pass it up as an unfortunate accident as I am certain that it was," Shizuru said, now adorning a bit of a smile as she turned to half-gaze at Haruka.

"What?"

"Ah, but should not Haruka-san get back to work soon? The day is wasting, after all, and all this junk is not going to pick itself up on its own," Shizuru said motioning to the debris lying by her feet as she leaned back in her chair.

"WHAT?"

"Ara… Has Haruka-san lost her hearing?" Shizuru innocently asked with mock concern while cocking her head to her side.

"I… I… You… I…" Haruka struggled to form a cohesive sentence.

"I… You… Yes…?" Shizuru probed.

"I… I… I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! YOU SNAKE!" Haruka screeched completely besides herself.

"Ara…"

"Don't you fricking 'ara' me! I've heard a lot of bullshit in my life, but you really take the damned bagel! You were not upset at all about destroying the shelves, were you?" Haruka raged.

"Oh, was I supposed to be?" Shizuru innocently asked, clearly completely unaffected by all the shouting directed at her.

"Were you…? YES! Yes yes yes yes! And then you dare blame _me_ for you not getting any of your stupid tea? How is any of this my fault?" Haruka shouted.

Shizuru suddenly looked at Haruka with a serious face as she went for the kill, "How was any of this your fault? Well, let me recount: it was _you _who locked us in here in the first place, was it not?"

This stopped Haruka once more in her tracks as the first accusation dropped on her head. Noticing this, Shizuru continued, "Also, was it not _you _who told me that helping you carry the box in here would only take a - quote unquote - 'few seconds of my precious time?' Well, the seconds have added to quite a significant amount already."

"Umm…" Haruka said now crumpled down to the level of a small mouse when faced with a predatory cat.

"Therefore it is very much your fault I am deprived of my six o'clock tea. As well as eight o'clock, nine-thirty, pre-bed, and pre-sleep tea times… and most likely my breakfast tea ceremony must also be pushed forward a considerable amount of time before the other student council members come to school and can free us. And that is not even taking into account any of my snack tea times I will now miss. Also hardly can I be blamed for this mess here either, as it was Haruka-san herself that wished to engage in this activity in the first place against my personal desire, and to add it would have been impossible for me to have known of the structural flaw of these shelves to know this was going to happen beforehand. Thus I suggest Haruka-san should keep her criticisms to herself and instead get back to work, as well as quit bothering me with any of these issues," Shizuru concluded with steely finality that Haruka could not contest in any way.

Haruka didn't know what to say. In fact, she wasn't really certain if there was anything she _could _say. Shizuru had carved such unpatchable holes in her boat with such logic and resolution that Haruka felt like wanting to sink into a deep, dark hole far away from Fujino Shizuru. Of course, this situation pissed the career-minded abider of justice enormously when she suddenly found herself lacking any kind of foot to stand on. But at the same time neither could she think of anything that would have given her even a bit of leverage… or anything that would have been anything more than circumstantial at best to win over Shizuru somehow, which even Haruka admitted was not going to be enough.

Utterly drained and frustrated, Haruka rested her fingers in her hair for a slight bit as she tried to squeeze the majority of her initial desire to destroy the room she was in and, after feeling her self control had restored itself sufficiently the few moments she had spent gathering it to know that she wasn't going to do anything regrettably drastic, she finally pulled her hands down from her head.

"YAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!"

The room echoed like a cave for a few second from Haruka's animal scream that even made Shizuru's ears visibly ring for a while, after which Haruka looked down at her hands. She could have cried right there and then. She had accidentally pulled a few of her golden locks straight off their roots as she forgot to release the grip of her fingers.

"Haruka-san should be careful, or she might go bald before she has a chance to enjoy the pleasures of maturity," Shizuru advised, her face reflecting a mischievous smirk once more.

This time Haruka did cry.

_

* * *

There you go. I think Haruka and Shizuru are really coming into their own now. Oh, and if you thought that Shizuru was being uncharacteristically clumsy with the shelves, what did you think she was doing all that time she was "planning" her moves? You know, it's always been one of my favourite characteristics in Shizuru that, despite being clearly intelligent, she's also really, really lazy. If she can make anybody else do her work for her (usually Haruka that is), then she'll take an advantage of it and not regret doing so in the least. But guess that's the real reason why Haruka really is there in the first place, as Shizuru's unwitting lackey…_


End file.
